Despite the jet lag, we couldn't stay in one room for long, of course. The prospect - despite announced rain - to discover the city of Montreal was just too tempting. Armed with info from various guidebooks, internet experience reports and all the received great-sounding tips from people, we thus set off into the city as typical tourists with cameras!
After the parking situation - especially for motorcycles - was a bit unclear for us, we decided to take the public transport from the airport hotel to the city. One of the first features that you also notice here - especially if you come from Europe - is that everything is so much bigger. So the trip took almost 1.5 hours.
The first part of the route consisted of a bus ride through different zones of the outskirts of Montreal. The dimensions of the industrial zone and also the adjacent housing estates are already very impressive.
The subway ("Metro") was here - in contrast to Vienna - extremely clean and there was not a single scribble or advertising posters inside. It is also funny that the wind blows in your face during the ride. However, you notice that the distances between the stops are very large, because the speed of travel is quite different than at home!
Later - after we changed to an accommodation in the middle of downtown Montreal - we were just walking. However, one should really not underestimate the kilometers covered! From a "little walk" it quickly turns into a couple of hours, because you really don't know where to look first! We certainly come back home completely fit!
Our travel date with beginning of April counted not exactly to the main season. To be honest, even the low season seemed miles away in 2022! In the old harbor ("Old Port") there were still some ice floes and snow mountains, the water basins, canals and fountains were without water and also many of the restaurants were closed. As we found out later, however, this was not necessarily due to the date of travel, but - as in many other cities - unfortunately due to the consequences of limited tourism due to the pandemic as well as the changed situation due to home office options.
While we were strolling through the harbor, you could see everywhere the cleanup work after the winter and also the preparation work for the next spring weeks. The parks and green spaces were being spruced up and it was possible to already imagine what everything would look like when it bloomed.
Montreal, after almost two years of slumber, is in the starting blocks for another great summer with events happening again!
In the harbor we were greeted (even if everything was still closed) by the famous Ferris wheel (Vienna says hello!), a zipline over the water and a sandy beach for summer days (but without the possibility to swim). Furthermore, there is a small market on the promenade and a high ropes course, which is located on a wooden pirate ship along with adjacent sandy beach to chill.
Photos: 1.) View of 2.) Still ice cream in Old Port 3.) View of the amusement park from the harbor (see flat hand) 4.) Promeande Old Port with Ferris wheel 5.) Still all water basins and canals in the city are empty - but soon it will start!
If you look from the harbor towards the city, the first thing you notice is the complete mix of different architectural styles from different eras and regions. It looks a bit like a jumbled bunch of houses from a time travel whirlpool. Next to completely new buildings are glass skyscrapers, then again a kind of French Renaissance building, next to it again an older brick house that one would rather expect in Great Britain - and so it goes along the entire streets. Old next to new, completely renovated next to something rather in need of renovation. A mix where it's hard to decide where to go first!
If you stand on the promenade of Old Port and look in the other direction, you will see the green areas of Saint Helen's Island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. Besides parks for recreation, there is also "La Biosphère" (still from Expo67) and also a world famous amusement park - where you can ride one roller coaster under another roller coaster! But as you can imagine: at our travel date of course still closed!
From the harbor one comes through the many small alleys into the old town ("Old Montreal"). While the ground here consists for the most part only of cobblestones in all possible sizes and heights, one sees here very many small restaurants and also pubs. In the summer there are also guest gardens outside - we could already watch how the individual wooden terraces were carpentered.
Photos: 1.) View of downtown and the famous Basilica Notre Dame de Montreal (with aura light games) 2.) View of Old Montreal (main square). 3.) View of downtown from the harbor
It's also striking that Montreal still has a lot of small stores ("boutiques") that really invite you to stroll around instead of the many big chain stores that make every city look the same. We even found a boutique that sells Christmas decorations all year round!
As in any city, there are of course many museums in Montreal - but for those who still prefer to spend time outdoors and walk through the city themselves, there is also a tour of the city with a special app. Here you can then listen to the information and historical events live by means of QR codes at the respective places. In other words, a guided tour with a digital guide. One thing should be noted, however: You have to register in advance online already at the time of purchase for a certain time, so that you can then make this tour at all!
From our second accommodation, we were closer to the city center "Old Montreal". And since we are always very interested in the life and the differences in a city, we also went here a bit on a journey of discovery.
Next to Old Montreal are the individual quarters ("quater" or "quartier"), which are called French, Italian, Portuguese or Chinese, depending on their inhabitants. They offer their typical food and goods, you will find a different cultural mix there and each quarter is definitely worth a visit! If you stroll along Rue St. Denis you cover a lot of the different zones and get a good feel for the diversity there.
There are also really interesting places to eat in these neighborhoods. For example, we found a cafe in the French Quarter with fresh homemade croissants. How creative the individual restaurants can be was shown, for example, by the fact that there was always something new to discover. We were surprised, for example, that the feet of the tables were mostly made of frames from the old Singer sewing machines, which we still know very well!
Montreal is one of the few cities that are truly bilingual. The languages English and French can be found almost everywhere in equal measure. There is a group of residents called "Quebecois" who try to preserve the cultural heritage of their homeland of the province of Quebec and its French origins. This is a serious issue - especially in view of the many influxes and the different cultural mixes that exist, especially in Montreal. However, if you take a closer look and also listen to yourself a little bit, you understand that the basic idea of wanting to preserve your homeland and your cultural heritage is something very human and normal.
We found it interesting that there are whole streets in Montreal where the traffic signs are all in French and then in the next street they are all in English again. More than once this caused confusion for us! Imagine coming to a street with a stop sign "Arret", crossing the street and there it says "Stop"! This really exists!
We had to get used to the multilingualism again and had a few funny stumbles in the beginning. Once we were in a cafe where the waitress first addressed us in French. Unfortunately, we didn't understand her well due to her dialect, so we switched to English. The next time she came to our table, she had forgotten that we were communicating in English and spoke to us again in French. This time, however, we understood her - but replied in Italian without thinking. When she then asked us what language we normally speak, we said : German! You can imagine how confused the waitress stared at us!
As in almost every city, there are also several interesting museums in Montreal. However, since we were first served with jet lag something and then rather spontaneously (without regard to opening hours) our tours across the city wandered, we unfortunately did not have the time to visit any more. What we did, however, was to admire the many small art galleries and their exhibited art of any style. Art is a big topic in this part of Montreal: both street art can be admired such as the countless really impressive graffiti as well as the small stores in the individual streets that sell art.
We have also heard that there is a - usually - annual festival at the many events here, where graffiti is created in entire streets and which you can then visit. Who now thinks of any scribbles, is out of place, because it is here really large-scale and impressive works of art!
Photos: various Graffitti: from beginner pictures to professional pictures everything! Picture below left: Art can also be created with plants (in summer the dog is green)!
The city is a colorful mix of everything possible, where even with a travel date in early April, with not particularly good weather and after two years of pandemic, you will find so much interesting that you do not know what you want to do first!
For anyone who wants to experience festivals (without snow): do not come there in early April!
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